So I'm considering a 540 xp build with Seeker: Hunter and Executioner, along with Soldier: Sharpshooter to really lay some hurt down with a Ranged(Heavy) blaster rifle. My biggest fear with this build, however, is the guy who jumps into melee range, sunders my weapon or disarms me, and proceeds to hack me to bits.

Looking through some options to counter this, I was thinking about eventually buying into Makashi Duelist for Resist Disarm, along with plenty of Parry talents. Could I attach a vibro-bayonet to fulfill the Parry requirement of a melee weapon? Anyone else have some better ideas on how to deal with this threat?

Hey Smooth!

From what I'm reading in the talent description on Force and Destiny pg 149; parry requires the player to be "wielding a Lightsaber or Melee weapon". I could see arguments being made for both sides. One being that a vibro-bayonet is an attachment on a ranged weapon as opposed to a dedicated melee weapon, which this talent is designed for, while the other argument is that the attachment is meant to give the ranged weapon the ability to emulate a melee weapon.

Your best bet would be to discuss it with your GM IMO.

I'd say yes you would be able to use Parry as I believe the bayonet lets you count the ranged weapon as a melee one when it is attached.

Other ways to resist disarm is the weapon tether mod, you still get disarmed but you can recover it with an Incidental as opposed to a Maneuver. As for Sunder I'm AFB so I'm not sure what to suggest except don't worry about it too much, unless you are fighting alone there will be other melee allies that will keep melee NPC's busy most of the time. That and carry a back up weapon

19 minutes ago, FuriousGreg said:

I'd say yes you would be able to use Parry as I believe the bayonet lets you count the ranged weapon as a melee one when it is attached.

Other ways to resist disarm is the weapon tether mod, you still get disarmed but you can recover it with an Incidental as opposed to a Maneuver. As for Sunder I'm AFB so I'm not sure what to suggest except don't worry about it too much, unless you are fighting alone there will be other melee allies that will keep melee NPC's busy most of the time. That and carry a back up weapon

I did consider the weapon tether, but the places I've seen in the book where it talks about being disarmed, the weapon can land anywhere in short range, and the tether only works if I'm engaged with the weapon. Not an insurmountable problem of course, but more inconvenient than taking two strain to ignore it.

36 minutes ago, DeviousGM said:

Hey Smooth!

From what I'm reading in the talent description on Force and Destiny pg 149; parry requires the player to be "wielding a Lightsaber or Melee weapon". I could see arguments being made for both sides. One being that a vibro-bayonet is an attachment on a ranged weapon as opposed to a dedicated melee weapon, which this talent is designed for, while the other argument is that the attachment is meant to give the ranged weapon the ability to emulate a melee weapon.

Your best bet would be to discuss it with your GM IMO.

My confusion as well. Eventually I will discuss it, but I like to get a good handle on what I think is RAW before I bring it up to him.

Yes but I believe, again AFB, that normally you need to spend a Maneuver to get to the weapon and another to retrieve it, with the Tether you only need to get to it so you can save a Maneuver. Not ideal but it will let you keep you Action or save Strain on a second Maneuver.

From your question though I'm guessing you haven't played yet? I wouldn't worry about it quite yet, see how your GM uses Threats and Despairs first, some like to disarm all the time others don't. It's not a bad thing to worry about it just might not be the one you should be worrying most about...

Also if this is your first session I'd advise you not spend all your EXP but keep some of that 500 aside until after a session or two when you have a better idea of which direction the campaign is going.You might want to take different Skills and such depending on what kind of problems your GM throws at you.

Well we played up to the 540 mark, but we've been alternating between a couple games and it's been a while since we've played this one. Lots of books have come out since then, so we're retooling to take advantage of them. I was less focused on Ranged(Heavy) before, so I'm more concerned now that I'll be more optimized how reactions will be.

Even a rifle without a bayonet is usable as an improvised melee weapon and could thus be used to Parry just as a broken table leg or a shovel could.

2 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Even a rifle without a bayonet is usable as an improvised melee weapon and could thus be used to Parry just as a broken table leg or a shovel could.

You know what? I didn't even think about using it as an improvised melee weapon, but that's a great point. I could save the hard point in that case for something else. Thanks!

4 hours ago, Smoothjedi said:

I did consider the weapon tether, but the places I've seen in the book where it talks about being disarmed, the weapon can land anywhere in short range, and the tether only works if I'm engaged with the weapon. Not an insurmountable problem of course, but more inconvenient than taking two strain to ignore it.

There is a magnetic one that can give you quick draw and lets you pick it up as long as it's inside short range.

2 hours ago, Darth Revenant said:

There is a magnetic one that can give you quick draw and lets you pick it up as long as it's inside short range.

Yeah that's what I was referring to. I lent my Keeping the Peace book to one of the other players in my group, but OggDude's Character generator says this in the magnetic weapon tether description (my emphasis):

• Wielder may recover engaged weapon as incidental.

edit: Confirmed. Here's the text from the book:

During his turn, the wielder may recover the weapon as an incidental so long as he is engaged with it.

7 minutes ago, Smoothjedi said:

During his turn, the wielder may recover the weapon as an incidental so long as he is engaged with it.

It's like Bey says, "If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it."

10 minutes ago, Smoothjedi said:

Yeah that's what I was referring to. I lent my Keeping the Peace book to one of the other players in my group, but OggDude's Character generator says this in the magnetic weapon tether description (my emphasis):

• Wielder may recover engaged weapon as incidental.

edit: Confirmed. Here's the text from the book:

During his turn, the wielder may recover the weapon as an incidental so long as he is engaged with it.

Ah sorry, thought it was short. Still, that's not a maneuver to pick it up. So still pretty good.

Just now, Darth Revenant said:

Ah sorry, thought it was short. Still, that's not a maneuver to pick it up. So still pretty good.

Yeah not bad, but still pretty inconvenient if the guy drops it right in the middle of the rest of his team.

Magnetic Weapon Tether has another qualifier: "This attachment can be applied to any weapon wielded in one hand that could logically benefit from a weapon tether."

Personally, I'd play pretty fast and loose with this, allowing it to be used with smaller/lighter twohanded weapons like saberstaffs and carbines, but a heavy blaster rifle is probably pushing it.